3/26/09

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cohesiveness - Group cohesiveness. This is what we as a group really need right now.

Going over the film-noirs on the twenty-fifth and noticing how well done The Broken Beautiful was, I learned that the crew who made the short film worked well together - everyone had a fair share of work and everyone did what they were directed to do.

Therefore, I jump to the conclusion that if group members were willing to learn (if they were inquirers - the first explicit IB Learner's Profile reference!), then they would not only gun down incompetence and laziness, they would also be eager to tap into their pool of freshly acquired knowledge to use it for the benefit of the film. Now imagine if everyone in the group were inquirers. The film would be greatly benefited because of each of the group member's effort. Having one guy who does everything in a project would simply not work because his imagination would be limited and the resulting film would be limited in variety and vision. Two(+) brains are better than one.

Going back to the first point: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cohesiveness - Group cohesiveness. This is what we as a group really need right now.

Group Cohesiveness: (also known as cohesion) is the force bringing group members closer together. Cohesiveness has two dimensions: emotional (or personal) and task-related. The emotional aspect of cohesiveness, which was studied more often, is derived from the connection that members feel to other group members and to their group as a whole. That is, how much do members like to spend time with other group members? Do they look forward to the next group meeting? Task-cohesiveness refers to the degree to which group members share group goals and work together to meet these goals. That is, is there a feeling that the group works smoothly as one unit or do different people pull in different directions?

Task-related group cohesiveness was clunky to start out with, as (mentioned in my previous post that was extremely rude) some group members failed to carry out group goals. But it is currently improving: we planned to visit the locations on the twenty-seventh so that the cinematographer can storyboard on location; and the script - a mash-up of Louise's, Andy's and my work - is nearly finalized (voice-overs are still needed and I'm currently working on it). It's not the best script, but we can work and build on it as we visit the locations.

There are things that are holding the task-related group cohesiveness back. Communication has increased between Louise, Andy and I and that is indeed a good thing; but because Ella never uses instant messaging, so it is difficult to communicate with her. Her role as an editor in a sense means that she will be mostly involved in the post-production and not the pre-production, but still, it would be better if a brain were added to the three brains. It would be better if she assisted the cinematographer (by thinking of portals and transitions and such) and did some Final Cut Pro research on her own so that I, as a producer and sound editor, won't have to assist her during post-production. Also, she is not available most of the time during both school hours and free time. So Louise, Andy and I will be scouting tomorrow and she won't be there. It is safe to say that, for now, she is contributing the least to the group.

I also need to stop hiding things away from the director. I have a vision of the chase scene and it is heavily influenced by Fight Club and The Machinist. I asked Alec to act in it because he is tall and lanky and fits the scruffy character type, just like Edward Nortan in Fight Club and Christian Bale in The Machinist (seriously, Google that and you'll see pictures of a malnourished, messed up Christian Bale). But I don't tell the director about these things because I automatically assume that she won't get what I mean because she hasn't seen those movies before. In fact, I keep things to myself because I assume that I am superior and nobody would get it and that is a very bad assumption to make because it hinders group cohesiveness. Okay, I'll say chances of the director having not seen those films are close to nil. But that doesn't mean that I keep things to myself and inrterrupt her during filming and say "this is what we should be doing because it is Fight Club influenced". I should explain to the director how the two flims are main influences and tell her to look them up on Youtube. Yeah, I think I will do that tomorrow.

End of post that was written after some serious introspection.